Lamela’s antics helped to get Anthony Martial sent off
Sky Sports were forced to apologise for remarks made by Graeme Souness during Sky’s Super Sunday broadcast on Sunday afternoon.
The comments made by Souness followed Anthony Martial’s red card in the first half of Manchester United’s humiliating 6-1 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford.
Martial was dismissed for slapping Erik Lamela, who made the most out of the altercation, laid down on the ground clutching his face, and undoubtedly put pressure on referee Anthony Taylor to send off the United forward.
Souness described Lamela’s actions as ‘very Latin’, alluding to his Argentine upbringing and time playing in Italy.
“If Martial is going then Lamela has to go,” he said on Sky Sports.
“He raises his hands, Martial lashes out, it’s like a tickle across your chops and he’s gone down.
“It is pathetic. It’s very Latin. If one goes, both have to go. It’s pathetic. Is this what the English game is about? We, the Brits, do it differently. I’ve played in a Latin country, I’ve worked in Latin countries, I know how they see the game.
“Lamela will sleep well tonight thinking he has done a great piece of work for his team. That is not us.”
Dave Jones, presenter of the show, later apologised for the remarks for the stereotyping of Latin culture inherent in Souness’ comments.
“Now I have to say before we go, earlier in the show we were critical of Erik Lamela’s part in Anthony Martial’s sending off in the Manchester United-Spurs game,” Jones said.
“We’d like to apologise for any offence that was caused and the stereotyping of the Latin culture.”
Sky just apologised for comments about Lamela pic.twitter.com/g9vVRNZkdl
— Ewitz (@EWitzenheist) October 4, 2020
